Across Our Hearts
by Scarsonthemoon
Summary: Dreams can be any number of things, but they don't usually make an alternate universe where Prince Max and the girls of his selection go every night once they're asleep. If they can't remember their dreams, and the same is true in them, love might happen in two places. SYOC open! (2/20) (2/20)
1. Chapter 1

**The Palace, Midnight, Illea**

As much as he hated his older sister, Prince Maximillian Schreave couldn't help missing her. She had been an outright she-dog when she was alive. She had been petty, self-absorbed, and narcissistic, but she still didn't deserve to be kidnapped and shot on camera in front of all of Illea.

Slightly shivering in the cold air, and wrapping his jacket closer around him, Max took another look through his telescope at the sky, spotting the constellation Orion. The stars were bright tonight, even more so with the cold, and he could see them twinkling into view. He had been reminded of his sister because of the cold, and because of the girl sat besides him, her dark brown hair flapping in the wind. Max still wasn't sure why he had invited her up to watch the stars with him, but his little sister had always seemed to be a much better person that Madeline had been.

"Max, is that a constellation? The Pegasus, right over there?" Missy, 16 years old and a certified genius, had tilted the instrument towards her eye, and was now squinting into it.

Following her gaze to where she had pointed, Max laughed and shook his head.

"That's an airplane, sissy," He said, watching the blinking red and green lights flicker as they interrupted their view of the night skies. Missy blinked and laughed with him, reaching into her pocket to slip on her reading glasses in the process. Her hazel eyes reflected the stars, and he could see the faint sliver of the crescent moon in them. Max turned his own face to the moon, and could barely see the darkness against the inky black of the sky. It was almost peaceful, up on the roof, or at least it was until a large bang startled the two siblings out of their silence.

Missy jumped, her glasses sliding off of her nose onto the roof. She reached out and grabbed his hand, looking around wildly for the source, tugging on him gently while staying silent.

Maybe it hadn't been the best idea to spend some time stargazing when a prominent terrorist group was still active in Illea.

"Shit. Missy, wait here. If anyone shows up, whack them with the 'scope. Got it?" Max whispered into his sister's ear, and gently patted her shoulder. Missy, her large eyes widening even more, moved a smidge closer to the telescope, a hand gripping it with all her strength.

Max carefully climbed down the rickety ladder that had let them see the stars from the palace's roof, and descended into the darkness of the drafty hallway, a bright gleam of light from further down making him squint and realize that he didn't have a weapon. Hadn't General Collins told them to be armed at all times? Cursing his forgetfulness, he bent down on the ground and picked up a loose brick he had tripped on when he had originally went up to the roof with the telescope.

It felt harsh and rough in his hand. Max crept forward, treading as quietly as possible, moving closer and closer to the light with every tentative step. Five feet. Four feet. A yard. It was much too close for comfort now, but he knew that the ladder would be the only way up to the roof, and he was between it and whatever this threat was.

He paused, knowing very well what might await him, and drew in a sharp breath that was louder than he had hoped. Another mistake, for the light turned around and shown in his eyes, revealing the fleeting figure of a man not much older than Max himself, wearing strange clothing with gears and a top hat, thick kohl lining his eyes.

"My condolences, your highness," The stranger gave him a grin, his eyes flashing like a predator's, before he gave a mock bow that made Max want to tear the stranger into shreds.

The man darted into a passage without a thought, causing Max to start and instinctively move, not realizing that a strange feeling was starting in his stomach. It was like he was slowly changing into something else, like his brain was turning on, like he was-

Oh. This was a dream, and he was waking up.

 **The Palace, Morning, Illea**

Max woke up in a cold sweat, and rubbed his head. It had been a dream, and a rather strange one at that, but he supposed he could blame his own subconciousness for it. He'd taken Missy out stargazing last night anyway, so he understood where it had come from, but the appearance of the stranger puzzled him.

Feeling his sheets pressed up to his chin, Max wiped the sleep from his eyes and pulled back his covers, clambering out of the bed with the grace of a drunk mammoth. The clock said it was only 8:30, but he knew that his alarm was going to sound at any second, and any chance to turn off the beeping monstrosity would be welcomed. It was on his nightstand, and he whacked it to disable it before turning and flopping back down on the bed.

His pillow smelled like sweat, and having his nose buried in it wasn't enjoyable, though he needed the darkness and smothering feeling of it to think about last night. The rooftop, but stargazing had gone well, and the two had only gone inside when Missy had nearly fell off the roof from being half-asleep. No mysterious strangers had showed up, but he did remember breathing in some strange dust, perhaps an after-effect of the recent meteor shower that had graced the Angeles skies a few days previously.

Scientists had accused it of causing strange hallucinations in dreams, and weather forecasters had called for an odd bout of chilliness, but it hadn't seemed to cause anything to happen to the palace.

Max tapped on the bed with his hand, face still buried in the pillow, and came to a conclusion. The scientists had been right, which was troubling. He had faith in it, of course, but he had heard of something of this caliber happening once before, which gave it new proof.

He sighed and pulled himself out of the pillow, wanting to throw some clothes on and get breakfast. Max knew he was loud in the morning, and Missy was bound to complain about the noise later, but he couldn't help the fact that his room naturally made him trip on piles of clothes. The maids had been neglecting cleaning it.

A look in the mirror showed his eyes with deep circles underneath. His hair was a mess, sticking up at points and in frenzied curls, and he looked a bit skinner than he had yesterday. Sweat dripped down his chest, thankfully falling off before it got down any lower, and Max could conclude that he looked like an absolute mess. Nightmares always did this to him, and the best cure for that was food.

After he untangled his hair and actually put his clothes on, since it wasn't socially acceptable to walk around palaces naked, he threw open the door of his room and nearly ran into a sleep-deprived Missy, scowling with dark bags under her eyes.

His little sister had her reading glasses perched on top of her hair, done in twin fishtails that trailed down the back of her "But First, Coffee" shirt that was three sizes too big for her, and her sweatpants were rolled up to reveal lime green bunny slippers.

"You, giant idiot, make more noise than stampede of elephants!" She complained, pointing an accusing finger at him while trying to stay upright. It began clear that the coffee had not been consumed before this interaction.

"Sorry, Sissy. Hey, how did you sleep?" Max grinned at her and pushed her finger away, putting a hand on top of his sister's head. It was a genuine question in concern out of her dark circles, and not until she started talking did he realize he wanted to know whether she'd had a strange dream.

"Fine, but I had this really weird dream. It was before we went to bed, we were stargazing, yeah? Well, there was a strange noise, and I walked downstairs to go and see what it was. A women, she was middle-aged, she appeared out of nowhere and curtsied to me before vanishing again. Mom said she had something of the sort, what about you?" At this, Max was relieved and also slightly terrified. They had shared a dream. The scientists had been right.

* * *

 **A/N: Hello! This is the start of a selection SYOC, set in a world disconnected or in the far future from the reign of the Schreaves. It might take some explaining, but stay with me!**

 **A solar eclipse has brought a virus to Earth that invades the mind, and the dreams of those it infects. Unknown to the royals, the palace is a dangerous source of the virus, and the selection is going to bring a whole host of new feeding areas for the virus. The virus warps the mind's perception of dreams and sends the infected person's conscious to a dream dimension where they live as a different person, without realizing it. The dream dimension is often full of fantasy and things not possible in reality, but plays off of real life enough to create a parallel selection.**

 **In the dream dimension, another selection is created out of the girl's other identities, but they have no clue who they are in the dreams. Dreams are hardly ever remembered, and it might just happen that true love can be found in both worlds. The Dream Selection, instead of provinces, takes the girls from different time periods in the dimension.**

 **Since having 70 characters would be too many to manage, only 20 spots will be available for each selection. It's recommended that you do a girl from the other dimension and Illea, though the real world identities of each character in the dream dimension will be randomized and will only be revealed once the selection is full. The girl who wins the selection in the dream dimension will disappear from the real world.**

 **It's two selections in one, and the form and everything is up on my profile, along with information about the story and the monarchs. I'd love it if you submit, so check it out!**


	2. Chapter 2

As the prince walked down to breakfast, something stirred in the back of his mind. A memory, already fading, and he had no inkling that it lay hidden there. If he had remembered it, things would have been different, and perhaps he might have avoided the fate he was being pulled towards.

 **The Copper District of Illnea City, Sunrise, The Dream Dimension**

The Copper District was a bustling, busy place, full of yelling merchants and the dregs of the city, off to their jobs at the first peep of the sun on the horizon. Old, rugged cobblestones that were missing in places made up the streets, and the buildings that lined them were no better. He could hear windows creaking as wives opened them to let fresh air so that the stale air of the past night disappeared. He could hear the clopping of horses on the streets, nearly plowing down the wary citizens. He could hear birds overhead, flapping their pitch black wings as they took to the not-yet lit skies. It was a dismal, grimy place, but it was the best for information gathering.

After ducking into an alley, unoccupied by the looks of it, the king of Illnea adjusted the pair of steam goggles he wore and continued on, the peasant disguise he was wearing holding for the moment. Filthy leather boots with the soles falling off, breeches that were at least fifty years old, the waistcoat over his shirt an ugly shade of putrid green, he had really gotten this disguise down to the last detail. If one looked closely, they might see the way he held himself as odd for a poor person, but no one would ever think to look closely. He was there for one reason, and one reason alone, and much of that was staying in the shadows.

The king of Illnea darted down the alley with a quick hop, twisting so he was completely in the shadows, his back pressed up against the rough stone of the wall.

"Hmph. Must do something about that, it's positively abrasive," He muttered as he made his way down the alley wall, creeping closer and closer to the dead end at the other side as he did so, the already torn waistcoat becoming more frayed with each step.

At last he reached his target. Propped up against the end of the alley, where a wagon prevented anyone going to the other side, a chipped and broken stained glass window pane sat collecting dust, half buried in the mud. He reached down, slipping on a glove, and picked it up.

He held it up to the rising sun, admiring the way the color looked before shoving it rather harshly into the satchel he wore strapped over his long coat. With a quick look up at the rooftops and a delicate step back, measuring the distance as he did so, he took a large leap and landed straight up on the roof.

A hazy sort of mist was starting to come from the pane of stained glass, which was an ambery orange color that was glowing more than it should have. In an instant, the scenery changed, and the figure was in another place.

 **The Window, Timelocked, The Dream Dimension**

King Jonathan Redcross of Ilnea City, the figure who had been darting through the copper district earlier, now stood in front of a large stained glass window in a dimly lit room, the exact proportions of it hidden by the swathes of darkness that lurked along the walls. Relieved to finally be in a place where he didn't have to wear the awful disguise, Jonathan promptly grabbed a clean outfit from the floor, left there for this purpose, and changed at a rapid speed.

After he had changed, Jonathan gazed up at the large window, his eyes flickering back and forth between multicolored panes. This was no ordinary window, of course, and he knew that.

The crimson pane in the upper left corner would take him to a future world, where humans mainly lived in space. The cornflower blue one a few spaces down would take him only a few years in an alternate version of his world, a Victorian era place where Illnea and it's entire culture did not exist.

Green panes, in various shades, would always lead to ancient civilizations. Anything red or orange took him to the future, and the few yellowish colors that existed would take him to someplace called the USA.

Today, however, he needed to use the sole violet pane that was in the very center. It was always discomforting, of course, to have to view something through someone else's eyes, but it was necessary. Today, he was going to figure out how a selection worked.

 **The Palace, Morning, Illea**

After walking down with Missy for a fairly uneventful breakfast, Prince Max had plans to go and study up on the recent predicament the palace was facing, but his parents had other plans that required him being cornered by two guards and taken to his father's office.

The office, which had previously been a room that seemed to glow with the energy of his father's endless enthusiasm for making the country a better place, now appeared somber and lifeless. The royal blue drapes covering the windows had been replaced with heavy black velvet ones, brushing against the window when a faint breeze dared to enter the space. The knick-knacks and clutter that had once covered the desk were shoved unceremoniously in drawers, making the desk look even more ominous with the single packet of paper that lay upon it. This, combined with the other number of small changes that had occurred after Madeline's death, made Max want to run and hide.

His father, the generous King Fredrick, sat behind the desk, the same change appearing in him that had appeared in his office. Stubble dotted his usually shaved face, and his tie wasn't the perfectly knotted accessory it usually was. He was tired and worn, Madeline's death having made an impact on him.

"Thank you, Officer Chester, Officer Young. Max, please sit," The two guards standing next to him left the room silently and quickly, leaving Max to face his father alone. The wooden chair squeaked across the floor when he pulled it out, and made a small groaning sound when he sat on it.

His father sighed, and his eyes flickered around the room before he landed his gaze on Max.

"Max. I want to tell you this without any avoidance of the topic or hesitance. In the aftermath of your older sister's passing, and the fact that you are now heir to the throne, I've been considering what to do next. Illea, as a whole, needs something distracting that they can focus on until this whole issue heals. Therefore, I propose-"

Knowing what his father was going to say, Max nodded, and resigned himself to his fate.

"A selection. I'll do it, but only for this," He smiled a little as his father started to laugh, something he hadn't seen for two weeks. For Max, the selection wasn't going to be something daunting or terrifying. He'd heard stories about how many of them were successful, and he'd grown up with the fairytale-like stories of selections past. His mother had always told him what a thrilling experience it was, and it couldn't be that bad if she thought that of it.

King Fredrick took a large, heavy book out of his desk and passed it over to Max, who nearly fell backwards under the weight. Granted, the chair could barely hold his own weight, but that book was huge.

He flipped it open to the table of contents. Preparing for the selection, page five. It was a textbook.

"Dad. Do I really need this?" Max groaned. King Fredrick smiled once again, and shook his head, pointing out a sticky note that had been stuck on the front without Max seeing it. _For Problems._

Max shrugged, and grinned. It was always good to have a backup plan.

* * *

 **A/N: I hope you enjoyed the second chapter of Across Our Hearts! I've already received submissions for both selections, but I realized that I forgot to mention something. I'm not accepting submissions through reviews. This is because I usually like to ask the creator about things if I need more information, and to coordinate on what the character will do in the story. Also, from reading other stories, I've found that the characters submitted through PMs often lack any detail whatsoever, or don't do a good job of it.**

 **Along with that, I'd also like to say something about the time periods for the dream dimension selection. I've gotten submissions for two characters in that so far, and both are from the 18th and 19th centuries. This works, however, to spread things out, I'd prefer if everyone would check the list of make sure that your character is at least twenty years in the past or in the future from another character. Try to give me a time period I can do research for, since it makes the story better!**


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